Peace, For Israelis, A New Experience.

RACHEL PATRON Commentary

December 12, 2009|RACHEL PATRON

What do Marwan Barghouti and Gilad Shalit have in common? Not much - except they're both prisoners. Barghouti, 50, is locked up in an Israeli jail. Shalit, 22, is held by Hamas in Gaza.Now, strangely, their fates are converging, and it's possible by year's end they will both be free.

Barghouti is a Palestinian leader captured in 2002, and put on trial in a civilian court for masterminding suicide attacks. Found guilty, he was sentenced to five life terms. There's a video of Barghouti on YouTube in an interview with al-Jazeera in which he appears charismatic and reasonable, speaking of peace and co-existence with Israel. By now he has learned fluent Hebrew and has read the biographies of David Ben-Gurion and Ariel Sharon.

In 2006, then 19-year old Shalit was a geeky-looking recruit captured by Hamas in a raid, setting off a three-year bidding frenzy unprecedented in the Middle East's long history of hostage taking. At first, Israel offered 450 prisoners for Shalit. Hamas demurred. As the numbers climbed it became obvious that ever more dangerous prisoners were included. Two weeks ago, the German negotiator put the final number at 1,150 - with but one disputed prisoner.

The media and the public concluded the one must be Barghouti. Freeing the most popular Palestinian leader is a challenge for Israel. So far, it has been able to justifiably claim there's no partner on the Palestinian side. The hapless Mahmoud Abbas, who is blamed for losing Gaza to Hamas, no longer wants the job. Barghouti does! If Israel frees him, it'll be signalling its readiness to talk peace. A tough call since not even the most optimistic Israelis believe there's more than a 51 percent chance of this convicted killer becoming a Palestinian Nelson Mandela.

Besides, Israel is doing quite well without peace. It has more start-ups per capita than any other country in the world, construction is booming, banks are lending, and - other than Iran - security prevails.

But let's face it. Peace is good, peace is sweet, and, for Israelis, it would be a brand new experience.

So maybe in this instance fate has conspired with history to free Marwan Barghouti, and bring home Gilad Shalit. It will be a hard choice for Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu and for the Israeli people.

Yes, a gamble - but also an opportunity.

Rachel Patron is a writer in Boca Raton. Her e-mail address is rachel_patron@yahoo.com.